Rays of Light from Above
by Pink Punk Princess
Summary: What would happen if Heaven, Tom and Fanny Casteel were not sold by their Pa and instead adopted by a loving woman who had already had a big influence on their lives. Alternative ending to Heaven, takes place after Our Jane and Keith are sold.
1. Prologue

_Authors Note: I do not own any characters in this story, all belong to VC Andrews._

_Miss Deale was one of my favourite characters from Heaven and I thought what might it be like if she had returned to Winnerow and helped Heaven before Pa sold her. It leads on from after Our Jane and Keith were sold. Its a bit of fluff, but hope you enjoy and please review._

I thought things would never be the same after Pa sold Our Jane and Keith to complete strangers, and of course I was right. But there was a ray of light which emerged from the shock of Pa's betrayal, one person who helped me and Tom become better people and live normal lives...


	2. Chapter 1

I woke up a few days later, the day school was due to begin again, my head reeling with the pain of what had happened. It still wouldn't sink in that Pa had sold Our Jane and Keith to those rich strangers for just five hundred dollars a piece! What right did he have to sell his children? Didn't he see how I had come to love them like a mother since Ma left, and how much they depended on me? Just to think of their crying faces in the back of that fancy car chilled my heart and brought along fits of crying. Lucky for Pa he had left straight after they had gone, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stop my thoughts of stabbing him in the heart whilst he slept.  
I made the biscuits and gravy for breakfast as usual, just going through the motions. Someone should really stay with Grandpa today, he'd need help getting to and from the bathroom, but I just couldn't face being shut up in the cabin all day with reminders of Keith and Our Jane everywhere. Tom burst through the door and my thoughts, his arms laden down with logs for Ole Smokey.  
"Heavenly!" he rushed forward after dropping the logs, his strong arms wrapping me into his embrace. I wept on his shoulder as he held me, then brushed the hairs from my face. " What Pa did was a terrible, terrible thing, but we need to try and get on with things." He tipped my chin up so I was gazing into his eyes, which mirrored the pain and sadness I felt. " Maybe...maybe what he did was for the best. Our Jane and Keith will have the best of everything now, toys, clothes, a warm clean house- maybe they'll even get a fancy doctor to make Our Jane well again so she don't get ill so often. But right now we need to get our own lives in order, you need to go back to school and work towards your dreams"  
" I know, your right Tom. I just miss them so much, and it would kill me if they forgot all about me I love them so much." I sniffed back my tears and my back straightened with resolution. " I'm going back to school today. At least it will take my mind off things for a while, I don't think I can stand to stay in the cabin today"  
Fanny came sauntering in from the bedroom then, her hair in disarray as she pulled on a worn, thin cotton dress. "Ya betta have me a good breakfast there Heaven Leigh, I ain't living off of two nuts agin all day." She glanced over at me and Tom and saw the puffiness around my eyes immediatley. " Ah, why yer crying? Our Jane an Keith have been gone a week an theys got the best now, not like me stuck in this stinkin cabin with nothin but you two and that old geezer," she screeched, pointing at Grandpa snoozing in his rocking chair. " Jist wish Pa had sold me instead, so I'd have a chance at the good ole fancy life." She wailed pitifully, grabbing hungarily at the plate of biscuits and gravy I gave her.

Later as we all walked down the trail to school Tom grabbed hold of my hand and held it tightly, in this small way giving me the assurance I needed to get through the day. As usual Fanny lagged way behind us, singing in her ghastly high shrieking faintly heard a male voice join her, then two seconds later she hollared out to us. " Not goin school today, see ya later." And with that we turned round to see her running off with one of the village boys in the opposite direction, giggling.  
Finally me and Tom reached the school gates, but there was no sign of Logan. Tom saw the look on my face and quickly reminded me that Logan hadn't been at school for sometime. It seemed I was in a dream when I entered the classroom and quickly rushed to my desk. All around me my classmates were buzzing with excitement, chattering to one another in an animated fashion. Then suddenly I realised why. Miss Deale was back!  
Oh, it was wonderful to see her seated behind her desk grinning at us all before she stood to start the day's lessons. It turned out that she had decided to return after the death of her mother, once the funeral had taken place and all other loose ends were tied up. She explained to us that she was thinking of staying in her mother's house and getting a job in a nearby school, but she just missed us too much. To have her teach again was a great thing, and it really did take my mind off Our Jane and Keith until it got to lunch time and I had a thought of how to get them something for lunch. The realisation that they weren't here and would never need me again hit me like a slap in the face and moments after the bell rang and everyone had left I collapsed onto my desk crying.  
" I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on," I heard Miss Deale say as she dashed back into the classroom and picked up her lunch she'd left on her desk, she spun around to leave the classroom again when she spotted me. "Heaven! What ever is the matter?" she gasped as she quickly came to my desk and pulled me into a hug. " You can tell me. I'm sorry about the presents, your christmas wasn't too unbearable was it"  
" Oh Miss Deale its not that," I cried. " Its...its Pa. He did something terrible. I dont think its even legal, but he did it anyway and now nothings the same." I continued to cry.  
" What did he do Heaven?" she asked quietly, a concerned expression cloaking her face. "Whatever it is you can tell me"  
" He...he..he sold Our Jane and Keith to a couple of strangers!" I blurted out, and as soon as I said the words I wanted to take them back. Miss Deale had been through enough in the past few weeks without hearing my family problems. But she was a person I trusted, the only adult I could properly talk to who understood me.  
" Oh Heaven no," she whispered, her face pale with shock. " When..how did this happen"  
I quickly told her the whole story in between my sobs, while she sat back and tried to take in all I had told her. "Okay, first things first we must speak to the police. What your father has done is illegal and we must find out where those darling little children are and if they are being taken care of. Tonight you, Tom and Fanny will come home with me and stay with me until we get something more permanant sorted out, you can't go back to that cabin without an adult to take care of you"  
"What about Grandpa? He relies on me and Tom to look after him. And Fanny isn't in school today, she went off with some boy earlier so I dont know where she would be"  
" Dont worry about that right now, the police will sort it all out and find Fanny. I'm taking you back to my house now and after school I will come back and we will go to the police about everything. You'll be well looked after now, my dear." Miss Deale smiled gently at me before going to tell the principal our predicament and then whisking me back to her house.  
She had the prettiest little house I had ever been in. She told me there was only one spare bedroom for me and Fanny to share and that Tom would have to sleep on a sofabed in the study until she had something sorted out. She ran me a bath and told me to relax and make myself at home before rushing back to school.  
I sank back into the tub full of sweet smelling bubble bath in the cleanest bathroom I had ever seen and knew that everything would be all right from now on, Miss Deale was our saviour.


	3. Chapter 2

The first few weeks of life with Miss Marianne Deale were some of the best of my short life. There was no more waking at dawn to make breakfast for everyone and getting Ole Smokey going, no more hardships and drudgery which me and my siblings had always experienced. Life was sweet now, we lived in beautiful clean house, were well fed and looked after so well. The only bad experience of the whole time was when we were forced to recount everything that had happened to the police, and then there ensuing hunt for Pa and Keith and Our Jane.

A week after we moved in, the police chief came over to the house to tell us they'd found Our Jane and Keith, who were now living in Washington DC with a couple called the Rawlings. Apparently when they were found they seemed quite content in their new surroundings, and the chief reported they were well looked after and settled. He advised us that at the moment it would be best for them to stay with the Rawlings as they were obviously providing a stable and loving home to our two youngest, and any further upheaval could badly affect them. We were however given a letter from Mrs Rawlings which begged for our forgiveness in their part of Pa's plan, and explaining that they just wanted to help look after children who had such an impoverished start to their lives. She also promised they would be in touch regularly and we could visit them in summer.  
The hunt for Pa was still ongoing, it seemed he had disappeared off the face of the Earth. However, the police had a lead from a doctor Pa had consulted throughout the beginning of his illness but he had no address for Pa. The police thought it likely that he was homeless at the moment or living life as a drifter, but if the doctor saw Pa again he was to contact them immediately to help with their enquiries.  
Grandpa had been moved to an elderly person's rest home in Winnerow the day we were taken in by Miss Deale, and the three of us went to visit with him twice a week. On Sundays he came with us to church and afterward came to Miss Deale's house for a roast dinner before going back to the home. He seemed content with his life now and was well looked after by Mrs Childes, the owner of the home.

Of all of us, Fanny was the one who had the hardest time trying to fit into Miss Deale's home and rules. Miss Deale was very loving but strict with her, insisting she attended school everyday and could only go out with her friends if we knew where she was and when she would be home. Fanny was still quite wild and rebelled against these rules, she wanted to spend her days with the rough valley boys doing things too adult for her to be doing. One time Miss Deale had taken me and Tom to the movies (our first trip there ever!) whilst Fanny was supposedly at her friend Louise's house for dinner. But we came home early and discovered her in her bedroom with a boy from the school who was at least five years older than her, both naked and obviously engaging in a sexual act. Miss Deale was furious and from then on Fanny was banned from having people over at the house and had a curfew, meaning she had to come straight home from school and not go out at weekends.

On a day when the snow had all but melted, and the first signs of spring were in the air, I entered the school playground behind Tom to see a sight which instantly warmed my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Logan was back!  
He stood on the other side of the playground near to where the rough path leading up to our cabin in the Willies, seemingly waiting for us. Oh, just to see his sturdy, proud posture gazing forlornly up to the Willies made my heart beat faster. He was dressed as smartly as ever, with brown corduroy trousers and a thick tartan coloured jacket which was trimmed in white fur. Impulsively I broke into a run and rushed towards him, shouting his name and expecting to be lifted into his strong arms. But as he slowly turned round a look of confusion came to his face, he looked like he didn't know me! He just stood and looked at me like I were a stranger.  
It took a moment before I realised how different I must look now that I wasn't dressed in rags, and half asleep from fatigue. In fact, I was quite transformed from the ragamuffin he once knew. My hair had been cut and styled so it fell in soft curls surrounding my face, my eyes sparkled with joy and I was much cleaner than I had been before Christmas when I last saw him. And my clothes! I had on hard blue leather dolly shoes, a pretty green knee length dress and a lovely thick pink coat that made me look so different. "Its me Logan, Heaven!" I gasped as I moved closer to him. A light of recognition sprung into his eyes as he really saw me.  
"Heaven? Oh god, Heaven you look fantastic!" he cried as he swooped me into his arms and swung me around. Then he set me down and looked me over properly, from head to toe, while exhaling in a low whistle. " Jeez, I've missed you so much- you look so different now! What happened?"  
I ran through what had happened in the last two months as we slowly walked to our classrooms, all the time he was enthralled in what I was saying as if it was a story not real life. He explained that he had been off school for so long as he had to have surgery on his eye after the fight he was in, and that for quite a while he never thought he'd see again. But like some miracle, one day he woke up to find he could see nearly as well as he could before and after a week more of rest he had begged his parents to let him go back to school.  
All day long he was all I could think about, realising how much I loved him and I knew when I was eighteen he was the marry I would marry.


End file.
